Klarinet Archive - Posting 001254.txt from 1999/01

From: WNPW34B@-----.com (MR GERALD W BARNES)
Subj: [kl] Re: klarinet Digest 23 Jan 1999 18:14:55 -0000 Issue 976
Date: Mon, 25 Jan 1999 05:03:31 -0500

Hello Klarinet Subscribers,

This is my first post to the list, although I have been an off and
on subscriber for about two years. My post, although I wish it was
concerning music, is in response to the first post which I found to be
extremely offensive since I subscribed to the list. This is the post that
was made by Ravel a few days ago in response to the situation involving the
court mandate concerning students entering band and other programs. In
this post Ravel accuses minorities of needing to use legal trickery in
order to obtain positions in the work force and in other aspects of social
life. This accusation is given 1) as if legal action taken to oppose
discrimination is occurring in a society free of prejudice and bias, and 2)
with out basis or any type of factual support. Following this accusation,
Ravel goes on to present the pathetic and commonly used example of how
affirmative action has not been applied to professional sports, even though
professional sports are businesses which are owned an operated by the
majority to which most discrimination can be attributed. Following this
ridiculousness, Ravel speaks of how minorities, especially African
Americans are under represented in the area of symphonic music. Ravel also
implies that the arts are not valued by blacks as much as they are by
whites. Addressing the issue of symphonic music, I know personally what it
is like to be african american who is involved in the orchestral scene.
Before I went to college I performed in the local youth symphony, and I
regularly attended the local orchestra concerts. I believe that people
enjoy going places where they feel comfortable, and black people are not
made to feel comfortable in the world of orchestral music. I have many a
time been the object of unapproving or puzzled stares and comments as I was
seen after a performance or attending a concert.(people were especially
vocal after my performance of the Mozart concerto) This does not occur now
that I am in college. I attend Morehouse College, which is ninety eight
percent african american. I now play in an orchestra that is almost
completely African American, with audiences that are also mostly Black. I
no longer see the stares, or hear the comments, yet I still know people
that avoid symphony concerts because they feel as if they will not be
accepted in that type of environment. In response to Ravel's implication
that the arts of are little value to African Americans, I would like to
offer the theory that Ravel's use of the term "arts" refers to art forms
which were created and started by cultures other than African Americans.
Ravel's definition of the arts most likely would exclude the entire art
forms of jazz, the blues, spirituals, the works of writers and poets such
as Langston Hughes, Amiri Baraka (Leroi Jones), Toni Morrison, Alice
Walker, and probably any other work of art created by any person of color.
Well, what I've been attempting to assert in this exhaustive writing is
that I strongly disagree with the comments made by Ravel, and I feel as if
they are simply the manifestations of a prejudiced mind, but that's just my
opinion.

Gerald Barnes
wnpw34b@-----.com
Morehouse College
Physics & Mathematics Major
Clarinetist/Bassist

--[ ORIGINAL MESSAGE ]-----------------

klarinet Digest 23 Jan 1999 18:14:55 -0000 Issue 976

Topics (messages 11474 through 11488):

Date: Sat, 23 Jan 1999 10:54:04 EST
From: Ravel1024@-----.com
Subject: Re: [kl] HELP!
Message-ID: <3de724ac.36a9f09c@-----.com>

On Fri, 22 Jan 1999, Paulette W. Gulakowski wrote:

> Our district is under court mandate to accept all students ("No Cut"
> policy) - whether they play an instrument or not.

And Ed Lacy responded
>Wait a minute, let me be sure I understand this. If a student, who has no
>experience in music whatsoever, says they want to be in the band, the band
>director is required by court order to accept them? If I have this right,
>this is pure lunacy, a good example of a judge trying to conduct social
>engineering in an area in which he or she has absolutely no knowledge and
>no understanding whatsoever.

Warning: What follows is very politically incorrect. Sensitive readers may
not want to continue.

Welcome to the era of "I want it, so I'll claim discrimination to get
it...whether I can do it doesn't matter." A number of years ago, when Carter
was President, my agency had to get rid of a validated, non-culturally biased
application test for a particular occupation because minorities were not
passing at high enough scores to be selected at a rate proportional to their
representation in the country. Lawsuit led to consent decree.

What I do not understand is why the same "proportional" mentality doesn't seem
to apply to professional sports like football and basketball...I guess money
let's you go for ability regardless of race, sex, color, national origin, etc.
ad infinitum, ad nauseum.

I suspect the reason the "proportional" mentality hasn't taken over the arts
community is a matter of what is valued in the larger community. I just found
out that my former high school, which used to have an orchestra, disbanded the
orchestra. I think it is not coincidental that this appears to have happened
as the school changed from being majority caucasion to majority black. I see
very few black or other minority faces on the stage or in the audiences at the
symphony performances I have been to. in the last several years..and I'm in
an
area with a majority minority population.

Ravel

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